The Old Captains Memories
by Sabo-Writer-Princess
Summary: Sometimes it hurts to look on old memories. Things that could have been and what could've been, there's always a bright side to things and usually there are bright people to go with it. Luffy is one of those people (Parent reader and Baby! Luffy)


**This fic was made because I saw some headcanons for baby Luffy. It was too adorable not to do, so baby Luffy everyone! If people are confused about the readers identity it I'll leave a brief summary at the end. The Song that inspired me- The Old Captain from The Red Coats by Brillig (changed a bit of the lyrics but only two words that being beri and the New world)**

* * *

You sigh in content, watching little Luffy smile in his sleep. He was such a happy baby always smiling, and laughing. You're glad Garp gave you the chance to take care of him. You just hope you'd be there to see him grow up.

You giggled, watching as he squirmed in his sleep. Luffy scrunched up his nose, a pout on his lips as he dreamed. Feeling the all familiar pain in your chest, you turned to the side coughing into your elbow. It wasn't looking so good for you, the doctors said you'd die in a few months' time. You're determined to live long enough to see Luffy grow up you want to be able to pass down your tales of the sea.

It's a promise. You silently say to yourself.

"WHAAA!"

Hearing the cry, you break out of your coughing fit, holding it in as you gently pick Luffy up.

"Shh, shh. It's okay. What is it?" You shake your head, "who am I kidding. I know what you want." Moving him to your hip, you walk into the kitchen, grabbing one of the prepared bottles. You lightly dab it onto your arm, checking to see if it was the right temperature.

"Here you go-," Luffy immediately started to suckle, gulping down the liquid.

"Geez don't go too fast or you might choke," You chuckle, watching in awe as he continued to drink.

 **Five bottle** **s** **later**

"Good lord that's a new record!" Luffy burps, a content smile on his face.

You snort, "Yeah, yeah. Keep smiling bub. You're just lucky you don't have to pay for any of this."

He coos, reaching out to grab at your h/c hair, pulling on it as he babbles.

"Luffy-"

"Y/N WHERE IS MY GRANDSON!"

You jump in shock, a pained yelp leaving your lips as Luffy gives your hair a startled yank. His face scrunched up filling you with dread. Tears started to roll down his cheeks. You turn to the new hole in your wall, where Garp stood. Luffy turns from him, burying his head in your shoulder, sobbing loudly.

You storm up to Garp, ready to tear him a new one for scaring Luffy again.

"DAMMIT OLD MAN THIS IS THE TENTH TIME!"

"BWAHAHAHAHA," He laughed a full belly laugh at your tone of voice and the scalding glare you sent.

"This is no laughing matter," you mutter bitterly, looking at the hole.

"Are you going to fix it yourself then or it one of your mooks?"

"So how's my grandson Y/n?"

He's avoiding the question. You narrow your eyes, giving him your best evil eye.

"Garp," you say his name in a dangerously low tone, promising pain. He starts to sweat under your glare.

You walk away from him, grabbing the on hand tool box. (Which you bought just for the occasion.) Coming back you hand it to him, impatiently pointing at the wall.

"fix it," you grit out between clenched teeth.

He sighs, leavening the hole he made. He soon came back with an arm full of wood. Plopping onto the ground, he begins to cover the hole up, hammering the planks of wood over it. Sighing deeply, you slump into a rocking chair, moving Luffy to your knee. His tears by then had stopped.

"Garp you've got to stop yelling. How many times have I told you it scares Luffy."

He snorted, "The boys got to learn if he wants to become a marine!"

You roll your eyes, "Garp let the boy choose his own path in life." Once your words left your mouth you felt the air thicken.

"You know exactly why I want him to become a marine y/n." Frowning you sigh shaking your head. Luffy seemed to sense the mood. He had a matching frown on his face, chewing on his fingers as if thinking about what Garp said.

"You know as well as I do that it won't help nothing will..." You trail off knowing within your heart that if anyone knew what you and Garp did Luffy would never be safe.

"Let him grow Garp. It's his decision of what he wants to be. There are so many paths to follow." The tense air eased up Garp's shoulders slumped. With the change in mood, Luffy relaxed in your arms. Looking down on him you smile, kissing his cheek. He giggled while Garp sighed.

"I just want what's best for him."

"I understand that but sometimes kids have to find out the hard way to grow up. You can't shelter him forever if you did that he'd never be free." He laughed bitterly, as he nailed the board to the wall. The rest of the time Garp spent fixing the wall was in silence, only being broken by Luffy's soft babbling. Once Garp left you breathed a sigh of relief. Garp wasn't a bad man per-say but he sure as hell was stubborn. Letting yourself relax you started to hum a little tune.

 _ **Round robin, round**_

 _ **We were all hypnotized by the sound**_

 _ **Of his tales from the new world**_

 _ **Told for a pint and a beri**_

The tears welled in your eyes as memories of the sea blind sighted you. For a single moment, you swore you were on the sea, back to the wild waves, fighting for dreams and memories lost to you.

 _ **Stories of battles at sea**_

 _ **From a voice that could shake down the trees**_

 _ **And the face of an angel**_

 _ **All battered by grand tragedy**_

You shivered as another memory surfaced. One filled with pain and misery. Cries of the damned still echoed in your ears, with the leering glances of rich women and in different men burned into your soul. Your back flared in pain but it was no where near the level of pain on your side.

 _ **Raise your glass in the air**_

 _ **With a tear in your eye**_

 _ **Time has come now to bid him goodbye**_

 _ **For at first light this morn The Old Captain has died Let him live on in legend tonight.**_

Yes, HE was dead. The Old Captain was no more but he never truly died. He still lives on in stories and songs just like this. A part of you was lost forever on that day.

 _ **No soul shared his name**_

 _ **And he sought neither fortune nor fame**_

 _ **But this old dusty tavern is Kingdom**_

 _ **O'er which he would reign**_

Even though it was apparent that Luffy had fallen asleep, you still sang. You now sang for a different reason. You sang for yourself and family lost along the way of that long journey in the New World.

 _ **Not a chapter of life he forgot**_

 _ **And the truth of it all mattered not**_

 _ **For adventure and grandeur and rapture**_

 _ **We'd feast on the lot**_

 _ **Raise your glass in the air**_

 _ **With a tear in your eye**_

 _ **Time has come now to bid him goodbye**_

 _ **For at first light this morn The Old Captain has died Let him live on in legend tonight.**_

Your voice cracked as the song came to a close. You stood quietly, laying Luffy in the crib. You were never a saint. That's why you were lucky that Garp let you take care of his grandson. Yes, you are so lucky to have lived. To have a man such as him turn a blind eye to your existence.

 **Six years later**

Luffy sat on a rock watching his brothers fight, he hummed a familiar tune making Ace freeze.

"Hey Luffy where did you hear that song?"

Shocked out of his humming Luffy tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Eh? I don't know but I think Gramps does." He laughed seeing the face of his angry Grandpa in his mind, "shi, shi shi he gets so mad when I sing it!"

Both older brothers glanced at each other on in confusion and one in scorn

"Course he'd be mad. Shitty geezer hates pirates remember, especially that one?"

Sabo furrowed his brows, "what are you saying, the Geezer knew the Old Captain?"

Ace nodded, "sure, he chased after him for years and years."

"What happened to the Old Captain," Sabo slowly sank to the ground eagerly listening, urging him to answer his question with a story, Luffy followed suit.

Ace puffed his chest up as he gave them a smug grin, "Are you sure you two can handle the tale?"

They both nodded vigorously. Ace's grin grew at their reaction, "well it all started on a summers night far into the grand line. The sea was raging against the boat of a pirate ship, the patched pirates were in a violent storm like no other. The waves were determined to drag them under but the Old Captain wouldn't let that happen to his family. They fought for hours and hours against the storm until finally, they sailed through it. Only to encounter Marines by then the patched pirates were beaten down but even with this disadvantage they fought like hell."

Both brothers ooed, wide eyed as Ace continued, "Only the Marines used a dirty trick. The youngest of the patches was taken right from under them and used as a hostage."

Both brothers wrinkled their noses at the use of a dirty trick like that. Luffy booed in protest pounding his fist into the ground to show how angry he was.

"That's when the fighting stopped. The Old Captain was at a standstill, there was nothing he could do. So he did what he must, using every last ounce of strength he took down the Marine. He succeeded killing the Marine on the spot and saving the youngest but at a cost."

Ace pulled up his shirt tracing a long line on his side of his abdomen, "He was stabbed but it wasn't any old stab wound there was poison on the tip!"

Sabo's eyes widened scooting closer to Ace he asked, "Did he die?"

Ace gave them a grim look, "no one knows. Once the Old Captain came back to his ship they fled. Never to be seen or heard from again!"

Both boys gasped.

"That can't be how it ends," Luffy cried in dismay.

Ace shrugged, "well there is another tale saying-" Luffy jumped up, interrupting Ace by grabbing onto his shoulders, shaking him, "TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME"

Ace scowled at the shaking, lifting a fist he brought it down onto Luffy's head, "IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP I'LL NEVER TELL YOU!"

With that threat Luffy was pacified, sitting next to Sabo, both hands covering his mouth.

Ace rolled his eyes, getting back to the rumor, "there are a few tales that people pass around, swearing up and down that they saw the Captain, only for him to disappear later. Most of these tales are in the blues, most recent ones are from this very blue."

Sabo frowned in thought, "how recent?"

Ace shrugged, "bout a few years six at most."

"Six years…" Sabo mumbled, "We were four and Luffy would've been just a baby back then."

Ace plopped himself onto the ground, sitting in front of his brothers. "The stories are just stories. I doubt he would come all the way back to the east blue. Why would he? He was in the Grand Line!"

With the story done both boys stayed silence thinking it over.

"Do you think-" Ace interrupted Luffy's sentence, "no way."

"Ace you meanie I wasn't done yet!" Luffy pouted huffing as he crossed his arms.

Ace gave Luffy a pointed stare, "You were going to ask if shitty Gramp's would tell you more about the Old Captain."

Luffy pouted more mumbling under his breath, "you don't know what happened. Maybe Gramp's knows. What if he's in prison somewhere?" Rolling his eyes Ace slapped Luffy upside the head.

Luffy cried covering the spot that Ace hit with his hands glaring at the older boy, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"

"That was for being an idiot. What were you going to do? Free him from prison?"

"I was going to ask if he could join…" Sabo sighed tiredly, tuning out his brothers as they began to bicker. Today was going to be a long day, it wasn't so bad. At least he had his family with him. Together they could do anything.

* * *

 **Authors notes: So do you know who the dear Old Caption was? Ding, ding! Congratulation it's you the reader! The reader use to masquerade as an old man captaining a ship. Sadly right after the storm and marines, they were an unlucky bunch running into some slavers. Most of the reader's family died or were sold into slavery, including the reader. Later you were able to escape and meet Garp. Pitying you he took you in and left you on Dawn Island where he let you take care of Luffy as a sort of 'community service' for the crimes you committed. In the end, you died. Brought down by a poison, which affected your lungs.**


End file.
